The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, did not have to score 25 votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) before being declared Nigerias President-elect.
The President-elect polled 8.8 million votes to beat the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who came second and Labour Partys Peter Obi who came third in the 25 February election.
To be declared the winner of Nigerias presidential election, a candidate must also score 25 per cent of votes cast in two-third of the 36 states and the FCT.
The two-third of the 36 States is 24; Tinubu won 25 percent of the votes cast in 29 States but secured only about 18.99 percent in the FCT.
Atiku, in a joint petition with the PDP, is challenging Tinubus victory on, among other grounds, that the former Lagos State governor failed to secure the statutory 25 per cent of votes cast in two-thirds (24 states) and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The petitioner, who urged the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to either declare him the winner of the election or nullify it and order a rerun, also secured only 15.5 percent of the votes in Abuja.
The Labour Party (LP)s presidential candidate, Peter Obi resoundingly won Abuja by securing 58.85 per cent of the votes in the capital city. Obi, who came third in the election, is similarly challenging Tinubus victory in court, on among other grounds that the President-elect failed to secure up to 25 percent votes in Abuja.
However, in a preliminary objection to Atikus petition, the electoral umpire, argued that there was no basis for the call for a run-off and/or nullification of the said election.
Justifying its declaration of Tinubu as the president-elect, the electoral umpire said by scoring 25 percent of the valid votes cast in 29 states, Tinubu has satisfied the requirement of the Constitution to be declared winner of the presidential election, thus rendering the requirement of having 25 percent of the valid votes cast in Federal Capital Territory unnecessary.
It further argued that Nigerias constitution confers the status of a state on the FCT (Abuja) and ought to be recognised as one of the states of the federation.
The FCT beyond being the Capital of Nigeria has no special status over and above the other 36 states of the federation to require a candidate in the presidential election to obtain at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in the FCT before being declared winner of the presidential election, the electoral umpire explained.
Refuting Atikus claims of electoral malpractices comprising alleged voter suppression, manipulation of votes and Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines in favour of Tinubu, INEC said: No votes were suppressed.
The electoral umpire contended that no ballots, ballot boxes, BVAS devices, accreditation and collation, or election material logistics were manipulated as alleged by Atiku and the PDP.
According to INEC, Tinubu scored 25 percent votes in Ekiti, Kwara, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Yobe, Lagos, Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Niger, Benue, Akwa-Ibom, Edo, Kogi, Bauchi, Plateau, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto, Taraba and Rivers State.
The Commission also argued that Atikus prayers to the court to be declared president are impossible.
It said the PDP presidential candidate failed to score at least one-quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT and as such could not have been declared the winner of the presidential election.
To further justify its crowning of Tinubu as president-elect, the electoral umpire noted that the margin of lead between Tinubu and Atiku was 1,810,206, adding that the total number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) collected in areas where elections did not hold or were cancelled were 994,151.
